Police couldn't make case before slaying of 2 women

Months before a Glenview woman and her mother were slain, Palatine police detectives tried to build a murder-for-hire case against the prime suspect but were unable to gather enough evidence, an official said Tuesday.

"They really wanted to make a case but couldn't get enough" evidence to do so, said Palatine Councilman Jack Wagner, who heads the Village Council's Public Safety Committee.

Glenview police, meanwhile, were awaiting the results of DNA testing as they continued their investigation of Steven L. Zirko, 42, of Chicago.

Zirko was charged last week with solicitation to commit murder after his former girlfriend, Mary Lacey, 38, and her mother, Margaret Ballog, 60, of Chicago, were slain.

Their bodies were found Dec. 13 in Lacey's home in the 1900 block of George Court.

In the weeks before her death, Lacey told family members that she feared for her life because she had learned about the Palatine police investigation into her ex-boyfriend's alleged attempts to hire a hit man to kill her, relatives said.

Police had investigated Zirko in October after a Palatine chiropractor told authorities Zirko had asked him last summer to help find someone to kill Lacey, according to a source.

After Zirko learned police were investigating him, the chiropractor refused to wear a recording device as part of the probe, stalling the investigation, the source said.

Zirko, of the 5800 block of North Richmond Street, is being held without bail in Cook County Jail. He is scheduled to appear in court next week for a preliminary hearing. Zirko, a cabaret piano player, lost his job as a music teacher at City Colleges of Chicago earlier this year.

A relative found the bodies the day of the slayings. Lacey had been shot and stabbed several times, and her mother had been shot repeatedly, an autopsy showed.

Zirko and Lacey, parents of two boys ages 6 and 7, had a turbulent and violent relationship that resulted in Lacey seeking several orders of protection against Zirko when the couple shared a home in Wilmette.

Police reports detail a number of domestic-violence disputes.

The couple, reportedly childhood sweethearts, also had been involved in legal battles, including one regarding a $30,000 damage suit Zirko filed against Lacey.

That case had a court date scheduled the week before the killings.

In the civil suit, Zirko alleges Lacey's claims of domestic abuse led to him being fired.

Court records show the couple also quarreled over visitation rights for their sons.

In addition, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said it received a hot-line abuse complaint involving the two children in October. The agency is still investigating, a spokeswoman said.

About three months ago Lacey moved to Glenview, where she lived with the two children, who were not home at the time of the slayings.